Our Grand Tour of Italy

My wife and I made the "Grand Tour" in March/April 2012 and it was fantastic! Loved every minute! The tour guide Sabra (Sara) was absolutely incredible! We visited places that were breath taking, to say the least,the food was Great and the tour group we had, all came together and became a fantastic group to travel with for the two weeks! The way "Go Ahead" has the tour set up, ie starting in the Alps in the North and then going south and winding up in Rome the last three days is the best way to see the Italian sites and country side. The side trips were also fantastic and a MUST-SEE is going to Capri (from Sorrento)! Absolutely Gorgeous! From Florence going south, we stopped at the US World War II Cemetery where over 4,500 American soldiers are buried! A MUST SEE and "Go Ahead" needs to add it to the stops along the way. There wWe had one WWII veteran who flew B-17's out of Italy with us on the tour and also numerous WWII offspring whose fathers fought that war were on the bus! Very emotional stop and a MUST SEE!!! Vatican City and seeing it was tremendous! In Rome, The Coliseum, the Forum, the Roman Ruins and things we had only seen in books and photos were absolutely breath taking! We would highly recommend this trip to anybody who ever wanted to see Italy the right way! Absolutely wonderful!!!!! Thanks to Go Ahead Tours and to our FANTASTIC Tour Guide Sara!!! Regards, Barry & Toni Siegle

All the best of Italy wrapped up in 1 tour!

While Italy is full of great places to visit, this tour wraps up the best places in one quick sweep! This is a fast pace tour with lots to see, do, and taste :o) Highly recommend to anyone looking to see the most of Italy within 2 weeks. Every place has its own unique and beautiful sites, there are no words to truly describe the experience. An absolute to-do tour and Gloria, the tour director, make the experience even more enjoyable with her very upbeat, energetic, and hilarious personality! She was full of information, a walking encyclopedia :o) Would recommend for all ages, solo or multiple travelers!

The Magic of Italy

I love Go Ahead Tours...this trip was perfect from booking until the trip ended. The next trip out of country that I book with only be with Go Ahead Tours.

Grand Tour Of Italy - 15 Days

This was a fabulous trip I enjoyed with my daughter and 39 other travelers. Our tour director Monique was great and very patient. Exceeded all my expectations. The food and wine were great. The city tours were very educational and it was nice to have a guide to show you all the areas one might miss if not being guided. Only draw back was that it would be good to have more time in each city so that you can just roam around. Usually you only get a few hours if you book any of the optional tours. But all in all a wonderful experience. If you are going in October -- take an umbrella and at least one warm sweater. We only had 2 days of rain but the day in Como was pretty heavy and the winds added the pleasure of a wind chill. Dinners are usually casual so for go the fancy clothes.

Fantastic!

This was the most fun trip, for my first goahead tour I had the best time. I would recommend this tour to anyone. There is a lot of walking with lots of hills. Trying to pack for this trip was a little hard, the weather was a lot warmer then I thought it would be special down south. One thing that I didn't care for was, if you do the Tenors dinner and the catacombs you don't get any time in Rome, so if you do decide to do those two things I would recommend to do the extended 2 days in Rome to see every thing. The portions of food that you get is very large.

Be ready for a whirlwind tour!

This tour was a whirlwind, more so because we signed up for all of the optionals. But we saw ALMOST everything you would want to see in a first trip of Italy. Soooo, if you want a tour that will really show you around Italy, this is a good deal. Weather was nice in second half of October, I wouldn't want to go earlier because not all hotels had air conditioning and if you open the window, the streets are noisy. Tour Director knew her stuff, she gave us good recommendations on what to do, see and shop for. Wear really good walking shoes. I've been to other places in Europe and have not seen cobblestones like these. Bring hand sanitizer and a wash cloth. Again, we saw just about everything you would want to see in Italy and then some.

Grand Tour of Italy 9//27-10/11-2012

I thoroughly enjoyed my tour. I wish that some of the optionals had been included in the price. We had various types of rooms in the hotels. I know at one hotel we had a beautiful suite and another couple on the tour had a room you could hardly turn around in.....said they didn't have space to open both suitcases. By the end of the tour I was assuming that all at least had one great room sometime during the tour. We had 43 on our tour and I guess that not every hotel had similar rooms for all. I knew by the end of the tour I did not want to have pasta for a while! We had a few included dinners that were quite good but not all. We did the Fiesole dinner and it was very delicious - it would have been nice if that had been an included one instead of an optional. It was described as an energetic tour and it was indeed. It had to be to see all that was on the tour but would have liked more time to shop at each place. There was so much crammed into the days in Rome that I think another day should be included in the tour.....not just an optional choice. Enrico was a very knowledgeable host. He cared about all of his guests and did his utmost to see that all went well. Luigi was our bus driver and was a very courteous and safe driver. Thanks for providing a memorable trip!

Grand Tour of Italy

First and foremost, our tour guide, Shonna, was amazing. Very knowledgable and fun. The tour itself was wonderful and exhausting (a lot of walking) . I especially enjoyed the individual tour guides in Venezia, Florence, Assi and Rome. The excursions were good especially the gondola ride in Venice. I would have liked more time in Sienna and San Gimignano. Lovely towns. I was not so impressed with the walking tour in Verona although the town itself was lovely. Bologna was also somewhat unimpressive, altough it may have been the rainy weather and all the hills that influenced our reluctance to walk around the town. I enjoyed Sorrento. Pompeii and Rome were amazing. We saw so much and yet there was so much more to see, especially in Rome. I definately need to return. I will say that except for the first evening, the meals in the hotels in general were not very good. You may want to consider skipping them and giving people a few recommendations of local restaurants they could visit. In one of the businesses I worked in, we used this process at sales meetings and called them "Dine Arounds" . Not sure if this would work on tour, but may be worth taking a look at. All in all, I would highly recommend this tour to my friends, especially if Shonna is the tour guide.

Grand Tour

Overall a great tour. There is a lot of walking and you need to be prepared. Great tour to see a lot in a few days in Italy. Jim

luisa cueto

Excellent tour director, Shona was as good as Lala (our tour director in Germany) .Both were excellent!!!!